London : Houses of Parliament by a terrorist attacker

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Thursday 23 March 2017

A police officer and a woman have been killed near Parliament in central London in what Scotland Yard are treating as a terrorist incident.The woman was among several pedestrians struck by a car on Westminster bridge, before it crashed into railings.An officer was stabbed in the Houses of Parliament by an attacker, who was shot by police.Police said there were "a number of casualties" and a "full counter-terrorism inquiry" was under way.Prime Minister Theresa May is to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee later.Met Police Commander BJ Harrington said he was unable to confirm details of casualties. Speaking outside Scotland Yard, he urged the public to stay away from the area around Westminster to allow emergency services access.London Ambulance said it had treated at least 10 people on Westminster Bridge.The Port of London Authority said a woman has been pulled alive from the River Thames near the bridge and was being treated for serious injuries. The French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said three French school pupils were among the injured and offered "solidarity with our British friends, and full support" for the wounded students and their families.Junior doctor Colleen Anderson from St Thomas’ Hospital confirmed the death of the woman and said a number of other people were hurt - some with "catastrophic" injuries.She said she also treated a police officer in his 30s with a head injury, who had been taken to King’s College Hospital.She said the woman had died at the scene.The incident outside Westminster is exactly the kind of scenario that security chiefs have been planning for.It looks like the type of attack that jihadis have wanted to carry out in Britain - mainly attacking people with a vehicle and taking on the security forces with knives.But the fact that the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism armed response swung into action so quickly indicates how much work has been done since the killing of Lee Rigby in 2013. Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, MI5 and, where relevant, other major agencies, will now throw absolutely everything at trying to establish the background of the suspects - whether they were working alone or whether there could be more of the same on the way. At the same time, while they are treating this as a terrorist incident, they will know full well that they will have to test the evidence to ensure that this theory is correct. MPs said they had heard three or four gunshots and staff inside Parliament were told to stay inside their offices. Commons Leader David Lidington told MPs the "alleged assailant was shot by armed police".Shortly after the incident, a Downing Street source confirmed that Mrs May was safe. The prime minister was seen being ushered into a silver Jaguar car as what sounded like gunfire rang out at Parliament during the incident.The White House said later that Mrs May had spoken to President Donald Trump about the attack.’Screams and commotion’Parliament was put into lockdown shortly after the incident at about 14:40 GMT. Tom Peck, political editor for the Independent, tweeted : "There was a loud bang. Screams. Commotion. Then the sound of gunshots. Armed police everywhere."Steve Voake, eyewitness : "I tried to stop people coming on to the bridge"Press Association political editor Andrew Woodcock witnessed the scenes unfolding from his office window overlooking New Palace Yard."I heard shouts and screams from outside and looked out, and there was a group of maybe 40 or 50 people running round the corner from Bridge Street into Parliament Square."They appeared to be running away from something. "As the group arrived at the Carriage Gates, where policemen are posted at the security entrance, a man suddenly ran out of the crowd and into the yard. "He seemed to be holding up a long kitchen knife."I heard what sounded like shots - I think about three of them - and then the next thing I knew there were two people lying on the ground and others running to help them. "Armed police were quickly on the scene and I heard them shouting to people to get out of the yard."’Mowed down’An eye witness, Radoslaw Sikorski, a senior fellow at Harvard’s Centre for European Studies, posted a video to Twitter showing people lying injured in the road on Westminster Bridge.He wrote : "A car on Westminster Bridge has just mowed down at least 5 people."Scotland Yard said it was called to a firearms incident on the bridge amid reports of several people injured.Transport for London said Westminster underground station has been shut at the police’s request, and buses diverted.Mr Lidington said : "It seems that a police officer has been stabbed, that the alleged assailant was shot by armed police."An air ambulance is currently attending the scene to remove the casualties."There are also reports of further violent incidents in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster but I hope colleagues on all sides will appreciate that it’d be wrong of me to go into further details until we have confirmation from the police and from the House security authorities about what is going on."